Contents

Best Practice

The third aim of the Road to Change, after raising awareness of
CSA and
catalysing legislative reform, was to encourage international
collaboration, which meant that as well as engaging the press and
government of each country I also met with whatever
NGOs
currently exist who are focused on these issues. From these
encounters, and the three years previous while touring 'To Kill a
Kelpie' round
USA, I detail
below what I consider to be the most innovative and effective
practices I have witnessed, across various sectors, which as a
survivor from Scotland I hope our nation can be inspired by and
learn from.

Paris-based, "L'Association L'Ange Bleu" (Blue Angel
Association) focus on reaching out to pedophiles, individuals who
identify themselves as having an attraction towards children, and
support them in making safe and legal choses to steer their desires
away from violating a child. A documentary on their work has been
broadcast a number of times and always instigates a surge of emails
from individuals desperately seeking compassionate support of this
nature. President and Founder, Latifa Madam Bennari said she only
knows the film has been shown again when she receives another
barrage of emails, even from people in various other
French-speaking nations across the world. What struck me about this
organisation was Madam Bennari's conviction that her method of
reaching out and supporting pedophiles before the become offenders
is the only true action being taken by anyone to directly prevent
the sexual abuse of children. She maintains that all awareness
campaigns and personal safety training programs, which are often
categorised as prevention methods, are in fact only education. They
do not stop future sexual assaults on children; merely inform them,
their families and relevant agencies how to react after an assault
has taken place.

It is also her belief that sexually abusing children is not
motivated by an individual's natural sexuality, rather a
psychological malfunction caused by a significant yet unresolved
experience in the pedophile's own childhood. Through her innovative
therapeutic approach to psychology, many potential offenders have
redirected their own thoughts and behaviours and countless sexual
assaults on children have been prevented.

One example she gave was a man who called her from his mobile
phone as he was walking down the street following a young girl he
was about to rape. This assault was averted.

Plans to develop a new office in Luxembourg were halted when it
was revealed that a member of the board of L'Association L'Ange
Bleu is a convicted child sex offender. I appreciate why some may
object to this but given the nature of their work, this
individual's unique insights into the psychology of a child sex
offender is invaluable.

Dublin's 'One in Four' organisation also conduct similar support
programs but can only operate them once a week and must host them
in the same building that is used to support victims the rest of
the week. The practicalities of potential sex offenders sharing
premises with sexual assault victims could make the already intense
work very stressful for staff to coordinate.

The
UK does have a phone line
for such people here, operated by Stop it Now who have an office in
Edinburgh, but examining their website it's clear that,
understandably, they need to warn the people thinking of calling
them for help that they can remain anonymous yet if they do share
contact details and any suggestion that a child is at risk, their
information will be passed on to the police. Consequently, the
numbers of individuals utilising this service greatly
under-represents the number who should.

The exact number of people in Scotland who conceal this sexual
attraction towards children is unknown but if we subscribe to the
Council of Europe's research that every fifth child in our nation
will be sexually abused it confirms that we have a lot more people
struggling with this attraction than we are currently comfortable
accepting. We have only recently opened the gates to allow victims
to speak out without causing hysteria. I can't imagine how long it
will take before we are a society where anyone attracted to
children can speak openly about their problem and receive only
compassionate support. Hence, Scotland must greatly enhance
services, and visibility of services, for our citizens who identify
themselves as a potential threat to children and L'Association
L'Ange Bleu are making the most measurable advances in reaching and
supporting these individuals and preventing future sexual assaults
on children.

Barnahus

"The Children's House started its operation in November 1998
and serves all of Iceland. It is founded on the American model for
child sexual abuse services referred to as "Children's Advocacy
Centre".

The Children's House is a child-friendly, interdisciplinary and
multiagency centre whereby different professionals work under one
roof in the investigation of child sexual abuse cases. It is a
result of a partnership, among others between the State Police, the
State Prosecution, the University Hospital and the Government
Agency for Child Protection.

The basic concept of the Children's House is to prevent the
subjection the child to repeated interviews by many agencies in
different locations. Research has shown that when this happens, it
can be very traumatic for the child and can result in
"re-victimisation",
i.e. it can have even more severe
effects than the abuse itself. Also research has shown that
repeated interviews are likely to distort the child accounts of
events, in particular if there are many interviewers. Another
important aspect of interviewing child victims is to reduce the
level of anxiety of the child. Again research has shown that an
anxious child is less likely to express itself than if it is
comfortable. The Children's House is designed to maximise the
child's comfort
e.g. by toys, pictures and
selection of colours.

In the Children's House, the child is interviewed in a special
room by a trained investigative interviewer. The interview is
observed in a different room by a judge, who is formally in charge
of the procedure, a social worker from the child protection
authorities, the police, the prosecution, defence attorneys and the
child's advocate. The interview is videotaped and can be used in
court at the main proceedings. This arrangement makes it possible
most often only to take one interview with the child.

After the interview the child may have the medical examination
in the on site medical clinic. The findings are documented by
paediatricians through the use of a colposcope, state-of-the-art
equipment that records the examination on a video.

The House also provides treatment services for child victims of
sexual abuse and their families. The child is assessed for
therapeutic purposes. Then an individual treatment plan is created
and provided either at the facilities or, if the child lives
outside of the capital area, as near to her/his home as
possible.

On the 10th anniversary of the Children ́s House in
November 2008 more than two thousand children had been referred to
the centre for investigative interviews, medical examination or
treatment."[1]

From my work as an adviser to the Moira Anderson Foundation, I
have been privy to recent cases of child victims in Scotland who
were so traumatised by our current process of victim interrogation
that they literally soiled themselves in the dock while being cross
examined in the courtroom. Our legislation supports this cruel
counterproductive practice and I understand one pathetic measure
allows our Judges to merely remove their wig if a child is becoming
distressed.

To prevent this, the most effective process I have become aware
of is the Icelandic 'Barnahus' (Children's home) system for
sensitively supporting our child victims through the process. As
our Assistant Chief Constable, Malcolm Graham, rightly commented on
this idea, we cannot simply transplant a process from a foreign
jurisdiction and expect the same success. Scotland's Lord Advocate,
Frank Mulholland agreed that we need to update our legislation to
accommodate this advanced practice. Catriona Dalrymple, Head of
Policy at Scotland's Crown office and I discussed a simple step
towards such a reform, as I have already been invited by Bragi
Gudbrandsson, the founder of the 'Barnahus', to pay a visit to
their centre in Iceland. If a fact finding mission were sent to
Reykjavík, Catriona suggested then sitting together and
examining the specific Scottish legislation that would need
reformed in order to progress towards adopting a system of its kind
here. Following this, a presentation at Scotland's parliament could
be arranged to share the discoveries with our policy makers and
hopefully move on its introduction here.

Most crucial to the success of this model in Scotland is the
mandatory adoption of its practice by all Judges in every case of
sexual abuse of child victims. This may require new legislation
specifically ensuring this. I visited Zagreb's Child Protection
Centre, which has created a similar set up but despite the great
expense invested in building the facility and training experts to
use it, their process has not been endorsed by Judges nationally,
and while this excellent process exists in Croatia only ten
children in ten years have benefited from it.

Roze in Blauw

Like Police Scotland, Roze in Blauw (Pink in Blue) are members
of
EGPA
(European Gay Police Association) and are a task force mostly
comprised of homosexual or transgender officers focused on
protecting and creating equality for the
LGBTQ+
community within and out with the police. Established in 1998 in
Holland, their successful model is now implemented in other
provinces across the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, I met
JT Loh
who works with the founding group under their chairperson, Miss
Ellie Lust. Miss Lust is also a spokesperson for the Dutch Police
and her identical twin sister, Marja, is an investigator. The twins
are openly lesbian and despite being respected professional police
personnel both have short died hair which makes them quite
distinct.

Refreshingly, the officers of Roze in Blauw's sexual orientation
is as visible as it is inconsequential. Their ethos is that through
being open about their sexuality they remain more approachable to
victims of crime within the
LGBTQ+
community. They attend and marching in uniform at many annual
events throughout the Netherlands, such as Pink Saturday in June
and the recent anti Putin protests.

Following my traumatic encounter with homophobia from officers
of Edinburgh's Police back in 2003, I was quite moved when
JT
invited me to join the entire Pink in Blue squadron on their barge
during the Gay Pride procession along Amsterdam's canals, the only
gay pride parade in the world that is held on water.

Scotland has made great strides towards equality in the past
decade but we still have far to go, especially with regards the
circumstance for members of the trans community. As previously
outlined in the Quality of Silence section, territories who promote
fear of
LGBTQ+
create an atmosphere that secures the silence of children abused by
an adult of their same gender, for fear of the stigma of being
involved in any perceivably gay sexual experience. Conversely,
authorities that promote equality through leading by example are
moving their society towards a more positive time when victims
sexual crime of any nature are comfortable and confident enough to
report their offender.

Centrs Dardedze

The innovate child training centre 'Dardedze', takes groups of
infants on a beautifully orchestrated make-believe adventure where
they visit various worlds that present them with a variety of
challenges, constructed to help the children gain understanding and
confidence in their own ability to identify dangerous people and
situations and what actions to take. Purpose-built just on the
outskirts of Riga, the centre serves all Latvia, and the day I
visited they were hosting a training session with teachers from
every region.

When children arrive, they are given an otherworldly cloak and
tiny suitcase then board a Harry Potter style imaginary train where
they are transported to another land. They stop at several
destinations, each carefully designed to challenge their young
minds in problem solving which sensitively encourage them to
examine what they may or may not have been taught about the world
and empowers them to speak up if anyone ever violates them.

For example, in one world the children are shown a host of
characters that either seems kind or unkind from their perceptive.
One drawing was of a man with a Mohawk haircut smoking a cigarette.
The children initially avoid this person but when they picture is
spun around we learn that this person is in fact very kind and
approachable. In the
UK, we have actively
taught our children never to speak to strangers but in many
situations a stranger is the only person who a child can approach
for help. The heavy anti-smoking campaigns we promote to prevent
our children from taking up the hazardous habit has imprinted a
disproportionate discrimination against smokers, assuming them all
to be 'bad people'. Another world teaches the children to scream,
which in Latvia is culturally uncommon, perhaps a residual
condition for their recent soviet occupation; it is essential that
children know it is sometimes okay and important to scream.

I was immensely impressed by this facility and it's impact, as
the children loved the journey while also becoming enlightened and
empowered yet none are even aware that they have been though some
of the most crucial lessons of their lives so far.

The Moira Anderson Foundation

Established in 2000, Airdrie based but serving all of Scotland,
MAF support
both child victims and adult survivors of
CSA with
counselling, therapy and legal advice. They also facilitate and
deliver world class training for children and professionals such as
the "Safe Hands" training courses and workshop programmes and
awareness raising presentations to colleges, schools, nurseries,
youth organisations, churches,
etc., about keeping safe and the
effects that childhood sexual abuse can have on the individual and
society.

'Safe hands' was launched in Monklands in 2002 to promote
'Protective Behaviours', using a 'Whole School' approach and
through workshops for parents and school assemblies. Talks to
pupils are age appropriate from primary one to S6 and storytelling
and drama sessions are available for pre- school pupils, which
introduce the concept of feeling safe and sharing worries. Safe
hands training can also be aimed at all ages and groups to promote
personal safety strategies for everyone. It has been well received
by many people including teachers, police, nursery staff and many
other professionals and non-professionals.

The content of the training continues to evolve and incorporate
latest information and
MAF are
currently developing a new curriculum that will span a child's
entire school years with developmentally appropriate educational
programmes, which already have drawn interest for various local
authorities. Research indicates that children who have received
such training are three times more likely to disclose abuse, and
this is not only crucial for our ability to identify and remove
dangerous individuals from contact with other children, the child's
own psychological recovery and the prevention of the aftermath
outlined in the
ACE study
can only begin with this crucial disclosure.

The Moira Anderson Foundation has had much success in reaching
children across North Lanarkshire. Unfortunately, a postcode
lottery dictates wither your child will benefit and again
Scotland's denominational schools have been resistant to this
training. In September 2015, Glasgow's City Council to voted on
adopting the Council of Europe's 'One in Five campaign', which was
unanimously welcomed and my hope is now that they collaborate with
MAF to
incorporate the more details and advanced materials which they have
generated within Scotland for Scottish children, then seek to gain
an endorsement from the Council of Europe on the new system, which
could possibly then travel back to Strasbourg from where our new
world class system could be adopted by other nations.

The most crucial point is to make the public aware that these
materials do not sexualise the child. Parents fear their child is
too young to learn about sexual abuse but I always remind them that
sadly their child is never too young to be molested. All this
training does is teach infants and teens how to disclose any
difficult experience to people who can help them and we will not
progress without empowering all of our children in how to
communicate. We cannot continue on this path and expect to
eradicate abuse but resistance to this training has been met in
various countries and most commonly from religious territories or
schools. Children are equally at risk of sexual abuse regardless of
their family's religion or culture and so we must now find a
amicable but mandated means of reaching all children receiving this
training. Article 17 of the
UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, which Scotland is subject to, states that
children have the right to information that is important to their
health and wellbeing. Nothing is more threatening to a child's
wellbeing, nor their entire future, than being sexually abused. A
national strategic approach needs to be introduced to distribute
this training to every child, which could require new world-leading
legislation that circumvents any denominational objection.

CAST

Child Advocacy Studies Training (
CAST)
was developed in
USA by Victor
Vieth and has so far trained over sixty thousand professionals, and
growing. At the
NYC Male
Survivor conference in November 2012, while I was preparing for the
walk, Victor gave a presentation on the high profile case of Gerry
Sanduski. Highlighting the series of mistakes and malpractice that
accommodated this one offender's prolific career of sexual assaults
on children, Victor exposed how lack of appropriate training within
the entire workforce involved in child maltreatment prosecution was
the reason why so many disclosures were made by his victims and
even witnesses to his assaults yet repeatedly no meaning action was
taken.

Considering how most police, social workers and judges
etc. do not feel fully equipped to
handle the needs of their communities until they have been in their
job for a number of years, Victor created the Child Advocacy
Training Centre, a purpose built facility which contains various
mock-up crime scenes or real life locations, such as apartments,
houses, interview rooms, hospital and court rooms. The course is
undergone by personnel from the entire spectrum of workforces
involved in child protection and maltreatment prosecution.

Using case studies of actual incidents, actors are employed to
play families or employees and they trainee has the opportunity to
learn in situ the professional level of decision-making and
practice that in reality is required to protect our children and
ensure justice for victims. Similar approaches have practiced in
Scotland with actors training doctors, lawyers and police but
nothing on the scale and complexity of the Child Advocacy Centre,
which continually incorporates developments in research to ensures
all staff graduating from the training have a far more advanced
comprehension of how to protect children based on the best
information that exists.

CAST is
beginning to enter Europe and so we could and should have it here
in Scotland. As the entire program in designed to equip each
trainee with a comprehensive spectrum of experiences, recreated
from actual scenarios while incorporating the very latest
discoveries from other fields, such as the most recent neurological
impact studies,
CAST is
the best training being practice anywhere.